Sannhet

So Numb

The first time I heard Sannhet was on the Brooklyn, NY-based trio’s sophomore record, the purely instrumental ”Revisionist”. Said album managed to combine the furious drumming and drive of black metal with the noisy guitars and pummeling bass of classic post-punk, completely capable of captivating its listener without so much as uttering a word. Like an auditive manifestation of a serpent slithering below the city centre – an earthworm burrowing through the mulch and trembling the aboveground structures – the band’s sound was claustrophobic and, most importantly, impressive. On Sannhet’s third LP, “So Numb”, the band maintain their sound while managing to stretch further and higher than on “Revisionist” – fitting, for an album that deals with a young boy’s liberation from the so-called comfort of his mother’s overprotective nature (as suggested by the album’s cover art and described on Sannhet’s page on bandcamp).

Although rooted in the same foundation, the first three tracks on “So Numb” breaks free from the sound on “Revisionist” by virtue of letting some more air in between the dark, perfectly reflecting the transition from dependency to independency that the album’s protagonist must have experienced upon first contact with the real world. Especially “Sapphire” sees the guitars menacingly wail as clear as crystal above the murky soil that’s kept the band anchored on their previous effort, creating a brilliant contrast between two worlds. However, as could be expected by someone who’s broken free from his comforts, it’s easy to get distracted in this new world full of temptations and wander off, seeking solace and pleasure in the wrong places. Enter: “Fernbeds”, the band’s so far most distinct change in sound. The slow, ominous intro, initiated by a deep bass and sporadic guitar-plucks in the back, creeps up and emphasizes the band’s post-rock tag before ultimately climaxing in a distorted yet crystalline catharsis. Clocking in at seven and a half minute, the song, surprisingly, works as the album’s longest track – something rarely seen in a genre that likes to keep lengths at twice that of “Fernbeds”.

That’s the real beauty of Sannhet, though: the band breaks down genre conventions and mold them into something new. By mixing post-rock, black metal, noise, post-punk and ambient (even classical piano on “Secondary Arrows”) they risk losing genre-elitists, but the end result is so remarkably put together that you barely even notice these overlaps – they simply feel like a natural progression and as part of the music’s identity; something original. Once the music breaks apart and finally dissolves in “Sleep Well”, the album’s penultimate track leading into the album-closer “Wind Up”, it’s hard to know just what’s happened next to our story’s main character, but I suppose that’s entirely up to the listener. Whatever went down inside the minds of this Brooklyn trio, it was a story well scored.